Linn Prentis Agency

[christwriter]

Originally Posted by Mr. Anonymous

I've been going back and forth about whether or not to post my experiences, but I figure I will.

They had previously looked at a full of my 3rd novel, and were not enthusiastic enough to take it on.

I queried them with my 4th novel. In my query, I made it clear what the premise of the novel was, stated my genre (contemporary young adult) and told them that my word count was 50,000 words.

I received a request for a partial, and in the email, Amy told me that my wordcount, at 50,000, was a little low, and would I be willing to make the book longer?

I thought it was a little early to be asking that question, but I said that if an agent interested in representing me asked me to make it longer, then I would discuss that possibility at that time, and attached my partial.

They got back to me very quickly, with one of the strangest personal rejections I've ever received. They did not mention anything that would have indicated that they read my pages. Rather, they said that 1) They felt that, at 50,000 words, it was too short for young adult 2) They felt that young adults would not be interested in reading what I was writing about, ie, the premise.

What I do not understand is, why request pages and get a writer's hopes up only to reject solely on the basis of information that was clearly stated in the query?

Not only that, but they actually asked me, out of curiosity, if other agents were considering the novel, in light of the fact that they didn't think young adults would be at all interested.

I have no hard feelings toward Amy and Linn, I'm sure they're nice people just doing their jobs as best they can, not unlike all of us, but this whole exchange left a bad taste in my mouth, and assuming I don't get an agent on this 4th novel, I don't think I'll be querying them again.

I don't have that much experience (this being my first novel) but it might have been possible that they had more than one thing on the table at the time and needed to narrow it down. I've certainly done the same thing when I grab an armload of books at the store but know I can only buy one. One agency can't represent everybody. It may be that they believed your book has promise, but it would take more work to get it sell-able than other proposals might, and thus elected to pass.

It also sounds as if more than one person weighed in on the subject when it got to that stage.

[Mr. Anonymous]

The email stated that they felt the novel, given its length, genre and the subject matter (all of which were stated in the query), was, in their words, an "impossible sell."

[miamyselfandi]

Originally Posted by Mr. Anonymous

The email stated that they felt the novel, given its length, genre and the subject matter (all of which were stated in the query), was, in their words, an "impossible sell."

Something in the query made them think they should look further before rejecting. Something tweaked them enough to think maybe it could overcome those issues (if you were willing to rewrite, which they asked ahead of time). Once they read it, they didn't find what they thought might be there and rejected. Or so it seems to me.

[Mr. Anonymous]

All due respect, I don't want to get into an argument here. Suffice to say, the only thing in my query that did not have to do with subject matter, genre, and length was the fact that I'd queried them before. I'll let this be my last word on this.

[miamyselfandi]

Originally Posted by Mr. Anonymous

All due respect, I don't want to get into an argument here. Suffice to say, the only thing in my query that did not have to do with subject matter, genre, and length was the fact that I'd queried them before. I'll let this be my last word on this.

My apologies. My intent was not to argue. Good luck with your other subs.

[Victoria Roder]

Hi,
Checking in to ask if anyone has any contact, or news to report? Hang in there, everyone.

[Victoria Roder]

Worried that my resubmit didn't reach Linn Prentis Agency, I sent a nudge to the agency. My stats: Nov. 18th, 2010 sent Q & 10 pages
Resent Jan. 12th, 2011 after notice from agency
Sent nudge March 11th, 2011 letter only

Anyone else have news?

[TracyG]

I may do the same as you, no response yet to my resent query on Jan. 12th...keep us updated!

[Stlight]

On 1/12/11 I had a request for a resend due to cyber space/my formating scrambling my query. Today received a nice personal rejection. Actually this only my third personal one so that's good.

[52greg]

Got an R in two days from Amy.

[Victoria Roder]

My search continues. I received a rejection from Amy. Good luck to everyone still waiting.

[christwriter]

Got an e-mail two weeks ago from Amy stating that she liked it well enough but did not "love" it. Given my natural pessimism when it comes to my own work I'm assuming this is the kiss of death, but she did also ask for a few more chapters, so who knows. Unfortunately the chunk she asked for contains the chapter I feel least confident about. If she didn't "love" the first bit I don't really see how she can "love" this one. Ah well, at least the main character got to be kick ass for a little while.

[sb2brown]

I've been ghostwriting a memoir for an author who queried Amy Hayden on 5/9/11 and got a form rejection on 5/16.

[alohachild]

Equeried August 12th, form rejection from Amy August 17th... something about only accepting 1% of new authors blah blah blah... *sigh* It made me blue because they are one of the few agencies out there that focus primarily on sf. At least it was fast and polite.

[domynoe]

Is there any new news on this agency? I tried to send a query twice and it bounced back twice.

[KateJJ]

I got a response from them on 7/8 after querying on 7/5 - form rejection. I sent it to Amy Hayden as instructed by their webpage, no problems there.

[domynoe]

Odd. I used the same email addy and instructions.